Apple's New iPhone Pitch: Privacy

Coverage Type: 

Along with new iPhones and a promised smartwatch, Apple is selling something else these days: privacy.

In increasingly blunt and pointed remarks, Chief Executive Tim Cook says Apple handles user information differently than rivals like Google and Facebook, which employ the data to sell targeted advertising.

But Apple does sell targeted advertising. Its iAd unit allows advertisers to reach users on Apple mobile devices based on their age, gender, home address, iTunes purchases and App Store downloads. It works with data broker Acxiom to supplement that information and help advertisers target its users more precisely. And it installs an "advertising identifier," similar to a browser cookie, on iPhones and iPads that tracks users' activity on the devices. Apple says its system is less intrusive because it gives users more control over the use of their data and lets them opt out. It also doesn't target advertising based on users' locations as they move with their devices.


Apple's New iPhone Pitch: Privacy